The present invention relates in general to the field of household appliances, and more particularly to laundry drying appliances like laundry dryers and washer-dryers.
Garments made of delicate textile materials, such as cashmere, are not adapted to undergo regular drying treatments in a tumble dryer, owing to the mechanical stresses, mainly in the form of impacts, which the textile fibres would be subject to. More gentle drying treatments are thus recommendable for these delicate textiles, such as line drying or flat drying, which on the other hand are rather time-consuming processes.
The solutions disclosed in the European patent applications EP 1845185 and EP 1854916, both in the name of the present Applicant, are effective in eliminating the above cited drawbacks, by providing a household appliance that comprises a cabinet with a worktop defining a drying surface featuring a plurality of apertures, each one of which is fluidly connected to drying air conveying means adapted to deliver a flow of warm drying air towards and through said apertures, for gently but rapidly drying garments that are laid upon the worktop drying surface.
In the two cited applications, in order to warm up the flow of drying air to be conveyed through the apertures in the drying surface so as to dry the garments laid thereon, dedicated heating means are provided, for example electric heating elements arranged downstream air circulating means, i.e. a blower, that blow air into an air passage formed underneath the drying surface.